The Victorian Era

I am used to corsets, and they are more comfortable than not having them (except in an airplane, which I discovered last week). See some of my Victorian style clothes on Jeopardy on April 2! End self-promotion here...

I wore a push-up bra on a plane once... bad idea! On take-off, it felt like someone was pushing down on my sternum with a pool-cue. Very painful, but at least it stopped once we reached cruising altitude.

I think the Victorian era would have been a wonderful time to be alive. Provided you were male, and of the aristocracy, that is. Anyone who was female and/or poor probably led a very miserable, short life.

I am fine with the push-up bra on a plane. But it was the steel boning digging into my ribs because you have to really sit up straight in a corset, and it is impossible to sit up straight in an airplane seat. They are designed for slouching down over a long flight, not for sitting ramrod straight. I had to take the thing off, and was quite the attraction by the restrooms at the back of the plane about a half hour before landing, putting it back on. People were impressed I could lace myself up in a bouncy plane like that!